Living in the End Times : Ritual, History, and Ethics in Romania's Old Belief

Vlad Naumescu

ISBN 10: 0253075556 / ISBN 13: 9780253075550

Editore: Indiana University Press Mai 2026, 2026

Riguardo questo articolo

Neuware - In the Danube Delta, on the border between Romania and Ukraine, a shrinking community of Russian Old Believers Orthodox Christians who rejected seventeenth-century religious reforms in Russia has struggled for survival, withdrawn from the world while simultaneously trying to engage with it. Waves of social change, from internal divisions and migrationto external secularization and modernization, have reinforced this community's commitment to the old Orthodox rites and customs, as well as their long-standing conviction that the end times are imminent.Living in the End Times offers an in-depth ethnographic and historical exploration of thepersistence of this community in contemporary Romania. Vlad Naumescu examines theirways of making history, pursuing continuity, and inscribing their historical experience into anarrative of radical hope.The interwoven life stories of the Old Believers challenge broaderdichotomiesof the secular and the religious, socialist and post-socialist, and continuity andrupture, revealing a community whose obligation to bear the pastsanctifies the present and gives scope to the future.Againstthe threats of spiritual doubt, ritual failure, and lacking priesthood that have definedcenturies of religious crisis,Old Belief has already provided its adherents the meansto turn rupture into continuity, loss into creative transformation, and endings intobeginnings. Living in the End Times reveals how the most orthodox of Eastern Christians became modern by staying true to their faith, inviting us toreconsider the nature of orthodoxy, historicity and modernity.

Codice articolo 9780253075550

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Living in the End Times : Ritual, History, and Ethics in Romania's Old Belief
• Editore: Indiana University Press Mai 2026
• Data di pubblicazione: 2026
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0253075556
• ISBN 13: 9780253075550
• Rilegatura: Taschenbuch
• Condizione: Neu
• Dimensioni: 229 L x 152 A x 10 P (millimetri) 229 millimetri di larghezza per 152 millimetri di altezza per 10 millimetri di profondità
• Peso: 245 grammi

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

In the Danube delta between Romania and Ukraine, a shrinking community of Russian Old Believers—Orthodox Christians whose rejection of seventeenth-century religious reforms eventually drove many of them out of tsarist Russia—has struggled for survival, withdrawn from the world while simultaneously trying to engage with it. Waves of social change, from internal migration and fragmentation to external secularization and modernization, have reinforced this community's dedication to old Orthodox rites and customs, as well as their long-standing conviction that the end times—and their salvation—are imminent.

Living in the End Times offers an in-depth ethnographic and historical exploration of the persistence of this community in modernity. Author Vlad Naumescu examines their ways of making history, pursuing continuity, and inscribing their historical experience into a narrative of radical hope. The interwoven life stories of the Old Believers challenge wider dichotomies of secular and religious, Soviet and post-Soviet, and continuity and fragmentation, revealing a community whose conviction that the present moment is "the time that is left" creates a historical identity built on the future as much as it is on the past. Against the threats of spiritual doubt, changing practice, and an aging priesthood that have defined centuries of religious crisis within and beyond all of Christianity, Romania's Old Belief has already provided its adherents with a horizon of possibilities.

Moving beyond their initial appearance as an isolated community "stuck in time," Living in the End Times reveals the Old Believers as active historical agents, inviting us to reconsider the natures of orthodoxy, modernity, and historicity.

Informazioni sull'autore

Vlad Naumescu is Professor of Anthropology at Central European University. He is author of Modes of Religiosity in Eastern Christianity: Religious Processes and Social Change in Ukraine.